Doctor Who :: My Dalek Brain
by MekQuarrie
Summary: Ace and the Doctor investigate an old prison that holds a secret which could destroy an old foe, perhaps forever. But who is fighting who..? :: 'Labyrinth' image reworked from wikimedia commons.
1. Chapter 1

Ace was unhappy. "I thought this place was empty?" she whispered.

The Doctor pushed up the brim of his hat with the carved end of his umbrella. The shadow cleared and she could see his worried concentration flit back to friendly reassurance.

"All long gone," he chirped with a bit of a lisp. "Total amnesty from all crimes. Once…" He nodded back over his shoulder. "Once the greater enemy arrived."

Ace felt her shoulders tighten and her fists clench. The two short _bokken_ crossed over her back rattled in sympathy. She was not frightened to name the Daleks. But she still took care when speaking about them.

"Why's the life support still working, then?" She felt the dry rasp of over-cycled oxygen in her throat. "And the AC is ticking over." She was cold, but not uncomfortable. Your basic late era Terran bio-envelope.

The Doctor grunted. "Titania was mostly automated at this time. Maybe when someone was leaving they pressed 'restart' instead of 'shut down'?" He reached into his left pocket and a sonic key flickered briefly in his hand. Another hexagonal hatch opened and another long corridor was revealed ahead of them.

Ace raised her eyebrows. It seemed too familiar. "I hope we're not going in circles. Remember that castle in Leeuwarden?"

The Doctor frowned with the tips of his eyebrows. "That was not my fault. Paper maps always confuse me." He picked another instrument from the other pocket, glanced briefly at a green dot on a black square and returned it to its place. "There's certainly some dimensional folding down here, but we are getting there."

"Dimensional folding sounds perfect for the Tardis. Why won't she… Why won't it just do what it's told for once?"

The Doctor stepped thru the hatchway into the new corridor and beckoned her forward. "Step thru before we're separated. The Tardis didn't feel up to the trip. That's why we're traveling on foot. She gets like that. After a thousand years of traveling you'd want to put your feet up too once in a while." He was irritated now. Ace should have stuck to the Daleks. The Doctor got upset when she even referred positively to the Tardis. "Don't you like exploring?"

"This isn't exploring." Ace sighed and scanned the ceiling with her eyes. "This is a test of patience."

 **:::**

After another five minutes, there was another hatch, and another corridor. But at their end of the corridor, before the walkway opened out, there was a shallow service alcove off to the left containing locking panels and grease-covered display screens. "A genuine drinks replicator," Ace remarked. "Fantastic." She held one side of the tall dispensing machine and pressed a picture of a juicy fat raindrop. She watched a cool blue mist condense into a small beaker.

The Doctor looked back from the remote access terminal. "Water vapor cooling into liquid water. Not exactly magic." He pressed a dull section of the panel. Low-powered lights activated into strips, one along each side of the floor. "Aha."

Ace swallowed a mouthful of the water. Bland, but delicious. Then she noticed the corridor was not like the last ones they had crossed. "Another walkway?"

The Doctor walked forward with deliberation putting his arms out, waving the umbrella as if he had to balance. He pointed down into luminous shadows.

"More cages?" Ace asked. They had passed over some animal enclosures several hours before, the stink of sweat and excreta overpowering her. But not the Doctor, of course.

"Sort of," he replied kneeling to tap the surface. This time there were no grates, no grilles, and no meshes. Ace put aside the beaker and stepped onto the corridor decking.

"An aquarium?" she asked.

The Doctor nodded and leaned forward to peer thru the armored plastic. A ripple of bare reflected light passed over his face. His worried frown had returned.

"Whoever ran this prison had a lot of pets, Doctor. First a zoo. Now an aquarium. Where did they find the time?"

"Hmm?" He looked up. "Not pets, Ace. A prison has prisoners. And these were for prisoners."

She felt her shoulders tense up again. The _bokken_ rattled. "Who would imprison a tiger? Or a shark? Or whatever the equivalent is in space?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Anthromorphs, Ace. Or hyper-sentients. Clever enough to know right from wrong and offend some great common morality." He turned his head slightly to dare her to laugh at him. "As most societies do."

She felt the cold now. And she felt the walkway seem to move like a rope bridge over a gigantic gorge. Vertigo at ground level. Her fists started to clench. "Can we go? It can't be much further, Doc. Come on." She tapped his shoulder and made to move on.

"Ah. Look," he exclaimed. He balanced on the umbrella and pointed eagerly at a glimmer in the water in the tank below. As his finger approached the plastic, the glimmer appeared to twitch.

Ace flinched. "Oh, watch out, Doc. You don't want to upset whatever's down there."

He grinned and teased her by drumming his fingers on the clear surface. The glimmer separated into dull sparkles that mirrored the tapping. "Just an echo, Ace. Totally harmless." He stood up and waved her on. "Come along now. One last push, Ace."

She reached the hatch and waited for him to press the electronic key. One last push. But a squawk from behind her made her turn.

The Doctor's foot was stuck in the plastic glass, sunk in up to his left knee. "Stay back. A vibrational matrix. It seems harmless enough." He prodded the surface of the material around his ankle with the umbrella. But molten tendrils stretched up and out and lashed at his legs and lower torso. "Oh," he muttered, less convinced.

"Doctor," she shouted. "Stay still." She swept one of the _bokken_ up from its location on her back, over her shoulder, and into a straight vertical position. She stepped forward, ready to strike at the glass, ready to free her friend.

It was already too late.


	2. Chapter 2

"Doctor." She shouted again at the armored plastic. It had sealed shut, the surface smooth and undisturbed. Even the glow in the depths had dispersed.

She let her confusion boil into anger and pulled both _bokken_ from her back. With smooth, parallel, angry motions she smashed the dense wood into the placid aquarium walls. The blows echoed and bounced around the confined space. She brought the swords down again.

"Doctor!" she shouted.

The hatch opened ahead.

"What is all this commotion about?" The hoarse voice sounded tired. And angry. And lots of things.

Ace turned and jabbed the _bokken_ forward in the probing _o gasumi_ position. "Who's there?" she asked.

He was young in appearance, but tired. A leather jacket and dirty trousers. The face was wrinkled and not improved by a poor attempt to shave. His eyebrow indicated a slight interest in the weapons.

Ace wondered who he could be. Maybe a maintenance guy with nothing else to do? Or a wrecker looking for scrap and tradeable salvage. Maybe he had been a prisoner and was returning for souvenirs? Or revenge.

"Who were you calling for?" he asked. "I could hear it thru the hatch, which is quite an achievement." He looked down at the battered window, the surface already returning to its previous undisturbed state. "The lights didn't get him did they?" He paused to think. "Very odd."

"I asked who you were." She felt desperate. This new arrival could be a help in finding the Doctor. Or he could be a time-wasting fool.

He rolled his eyes. Her approach seemed to tire him. "I've been called a lot of things, _senpai_. A joker, a slave, a doctor, a knave. At this time in my life I prefer 'warrior'."

She stood straight and pushed the _bokken_ back into place on her back. "I can't just call you Warrior. That would be stupid." She looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. "But whatever you're called, you have to help me find my friend."

He nodded and beckoned her thru. "There's a control room thru here. I'll show you what I think has happened to him." He pointed to the plastic glass at floor level. The dancing glow had returned. "Best to avoid touching that for now."

She slowly approached the hatch taking a quick glance at what lay ahead. Some kind of circular meeting place was beyond.

The Warrior stooped to look back thru the hatch. "What is your friend's name then?" He blinked as if listening to a tall tale, attending benignly to a childish story.

Ace did not like his patronizing attitude. "The Doctor," she said as she left the corridor. The control room looked quite like it could be the destination they had pointed at on schematics in the Tardis earlier.

"What kind of a name is that?" he replied with a little indignity. "You said Warrior was stupid. Doctor is just as bad."

She had not really thought about it in a long time. "Well, it's a title really. He won't tell me his real name. But everyone knows the Doctor. He fixes things. Makes things better."

The Warrior rolled his eyes. "Do you run his fan club? Well, I fight things." He paused to breath carefully. His nostrils flared briefly. "Goodness knows if it makes anything better. But that makes me a warrior. End of story."

The walls of the hub were overlain with maps and schematics. Aside from small variations in temperature and pressure, very little seemed to be happening. "And what do you fight?" she asked. She tried to sound disinterested, but it seemed so obvious what his answer would be.

"Hmm." He thought carefully. "Probably nothing at all. I'm fighting history. Maybe inevitability."

"Turning back time?" she mused aloud. "Now where's the Doctor?"

He lifted a heavy hand to the flow of energy on the longest schematic. "Probably scattered for now. Until it wakes up." He fell silent briefly. "You know you shouldn't cross those sticks." He tapped her shoulder and she twisted her top half as if to look at the _bokken_. "If you hang them side by side the _shui_ is better. Particularly if you actually intend to hurt someone with them."

Ace never blushed, but her cheeks felt hot. "They're swords and I've hurt plenty of people with them."

He looked sad. "You seem pleased."

She pressed her lips firmly together and let her shoulders relax. There was nothing to say. "Why is it offline? I thought it would be switched on all the time."

He pressed his palms onto the panel beside him, as if holding himself steady. "Switched on? Like a computer. I thought you knew what we're dealing with here."

Her shoulders tightened again. Perhaps smashing up a few things would make her feel better after all. "The Doctor called it a 'brain'; an electronic 'brain'. Made up of components from captive Daleks."

The Warrior nodded. "Yes. Some mechanical components, of course. But the real genius of the Daleks is in their tissue, their very cells." His gaze turned directly to her, daring her to make the last connection.

"It's a real brain?" She glanced at the schematic. "But that thing must be a couple of metres high. What could possibly have a brain that big?"

The Warrior rubbed his nose. "It's a confection of bits and pieces, Ace. Scraps scoured from old Dalek casings, tissues cultured into layers and layers of processing ability. All lumped together in a fermenting tank of nutrients. Not dead, not conscious. But seething in that Dalek way and crackling with ideas."

She felt a cold twitch in her chest. "Who ran this place? Weren't the Daleks prisoners of war?"

He raised his eyebrows. "I like that, _senpai_. Get the facts right, then you get the motives right. Me? I've no idea who these mad creatures were. All I know is: they had prisoners and they let my people do what they wanted."

"Shit," said Ace. "I just realized who you are."


	3. Chapter 3

"You're one of them. His people who're always interfering and never getting it right."

His lips curled so slightly that only the edge of his teeth could be seen. It was a suggestion of a smile, sweet but sad. "Indeed. Never getting it right."

She searched her memories for the right reference. The Doctor could be so vague about his past that she often doubted that even half of it could be true. "Something meddlesome." She narrowed her eyes to tease out the answer. "But, no, you can't be that lunatic the Master. You're too sad."

His bemusement vanished; he held up his palm. "Enough guesswork. The Master is gone, dead I'm told. But then he's been dead so many times before. More than enough times to still keep me worried.

"But one thing is correct. The gravity string was searching for me. Not your friend. A bit of primitive programming. Made it grab the nearest Time Lord. I suspect even a Gallifreyan Caprice would have been taken."

He turned back to the display. He analyzed the diagram of the sickening shape on the screen and seemed to forget her entirely.

Ace recognized the aloof behavior of a Time Lord. She had been right. Another adventurer like the Doctor. But more focussed, more aggressive. "We came to see if it could be controlled," Ace ventured.

He continued to tap the screen, rotating the image in three dimensions. "I'm sure you did," he muttered.

She reached out to touch his arm. She needed only the briefest bit of attention. "Then we could outthink the Daleks. Outwit them with their own thinking."

He rolled his eyes with pity. "I don't think so."

His stubbornness was starting to annoy her. She thought happy thoughts. "That was the plan. Use the Dalek 'brain' to get one step ahead of them."

He turned to look over his shoulder, his eyes sad. "I don't think that was your Doctor's plan. Is that what he told you, Ace?"

The familiarity took her by surprise. "We discussed it on the Tardis. Just me and the Doctor. You weren't there, thank you. The Alzarius Fleet. The Continuity Trap. It was all too baffling to him. To be honest, I still have no idea what it's all about. But we had to get an advantage over their own battle computers."

He drummed his hands on the screen, friendly again. "Can't be done, Ace. The Daleks don't even know themselves what they think from one second to the next. It's all instinct. A bit of bitterness and a lot of shouting. A bit like the Time Lords, but with more bitterness. And less shouting." His gaze drifted for a second. "Their computers are little more than adding machines that confirm the Daleks' own guesses. It's why they don't always win. And why they don't always lose."

She frowned and pointed limply to the illustrated brain. "But whoever put this thing together thought they could do it." She was less sure now. And she had not been sure before.

He pressed his thumb against the top corner of the screen. It cleared instantly and folded up to stow itself away. "No. Whoever did this is sick." He did not sound surprised. "And those who authorized it are even worse."

"Wasn't this a Time Lord prison?"

"No."

"The Doctor said…"

"Your Doctor says a lot of things. I doubt most of it could be true. Parts of this place were used by elements of the Time Lords. Subcontracting. Experimental techniques and technologies. And still no accounting for that damned cat flu. Ironic for the masters of time. Don't you think?"

Ace scowled and turned away. Now she needed a quiet corner to regroup her thoughts. The Doctor was trapped; this Warrior was infuriating her.

"Stop sulking," he said. "Give me that bag." He pointed into one of the remaining corners of the control pod. A rugged khaki colored pack lay slumped under a planning desk.

"What is it?" she grumbled. She went to the desk and pulled the pack into view. It was old and smelt moldy. She held the top of the pack with one hand and loosened the drawstrings with the other. Inside were unlabelled tin cans like old soup cans. She was not sure about the words scribbled on in marker pen. The Tardis translation matrix did funny things to her head. But she thought it might have been French. "Tinned peas?" She lifted out the top can and tilted it one way and then the other.

"Don't shake it, my dear Dorothy. They're explosives. And very primitive."

Her fingers stiffened around the object she was holding. She felt an angry heat glow again within her face. "You idiot. Why didn't you tell me?" She held the can level and placed it back in the bag. There were at least another ten. "And what do you intend to do with this lot? I hardly think you'll be able to terrorize the brain into submission."

"Well exactly," he replied. "If we can't control it - and I'm sure we can't - we'll have to destroy it."

She felt like lobbing one of the tins at him where he stood. She would almost take the risk of being in the same room as the tin exploded, as if her anger alone could protect her.

"The Doctor is trapped by that thing, Warrior. If you kill it, he may never escape." His indifference was all too clear now.

He puffed out his cheeks, the wrinkles around his lips becoming emphasized. "There are many casualties in war, Ace. And there are no rules about who survives and who does not." He scratched his head then patted down the wild hair. "But I have a feeling the Doctor will live to fight another day."

Ace frowned and drew the string closed on the bag of explosives. She lifted it up with her fist and passed it to the Warrior. "This is a very big, very quiet prison. Don't be wrong."


	4. Chapter 4

Ace realized she was holding her breath. The little snake-light wrapped around her right forearm lit up the access tube ahead of her, but she was still too closed in. How much further? she thought. The weight attached to her left ankle was starting to rub against the tiny hairs of her ankle. She gave the line a sharp jerk and felt the sack of explosives shift up towards her. "How much further?" she shouted.

The cry echoed back along the tube, then faded into the dark. There was silence and she was alone again. She knew he was trouble, but she was doing his job for him. Why did he not reply?

"What?" came the irritated reply.

Ace knew they should have used com-links. But the Warrior was too concerned with getting on with the job. No hindrance, no comebacks.

"How much further?!" she shouted, giving full vent to her frustration. Her neck was beginning to feel tight and her right ear was folded at the edge. Even her shamanic meditation was fading. The space was just too small.

There was again an equally infuriating pause. And more silence. Now she knew he had to have gone away for a nap, or an old man's comfort break, or had just forgotten what she was doing.

"Not far," he replied without any conviction.

"I hate you," she whispered. "I bloody hate you." She wriggled her shoulders forward in the way that she had eventually found most productive. As her left ankle twitched forward, she felt the reassuring tug of the cord pulling the pair of _bokken_ bundled a metre behind her. There was no way she was leaving them behind for this strange stranger to look after. But at the end of that cord was another, less reassuring, line trailing all the way back to the control room and ending at the old man's store of death.

"I'm not deaf," he replied.

"Then answer when I talk to you," she hissed. Her left elbow jarred at the faint seam joining one segment of tube to another. She rotated her shoulder and bicep to free it and moved the other arm forward. It was best not to dwell on every delay or twinge.

"Then say something interesting," he hissed back.

Her finger-tips pulled at the next section of tube. It was getting more damp. There was a slick kind of moisture accumulating in drops and running down the tube away from her. From the vague light behind she could see the drops sparkle like pips on a rotten berry, horrible and organic.

She had thought carefully and - it was true - the best chance of releasing the Doctor from his plastic prison was to destroy the defenses around the Dalek brain. Then the whole prison might just reset itself.

At last there was a hatch. She angled the snake-light on her left forearm to focus on it properly. It was much smaller than she thought. Around the edge was a horrible crust of mold and salt that reminded her of a Victorian men's room. She felt a slight gagging in her throat.

"You're there!" came the voice clear and full down the length of the access tube. He had been following her on the monitor.

"Can you try to open it electrically?" she shouted. She moved her shoulders around again, jarred her slight hips against the sides. Her patience was draining away.

"I gave you a key," he stated. "Use it."

She grumbled and reached for the piece of masking tape positioned above her navel and tore it off. "Ow", she aimed the almost genuine cry back down the tube. She worked the bent piece of metal off the tape with her teeth and spat the taste out of her mouth. It was little more than the tool for putting together a cheap piece of furniture on flatpack Earth. But she could see the six little holes arranged around the edge of the panel, each soiled with a sheen of gunge. "Let's get this done," she thought.

 **:::**

"Careful!" he shouted from back down the tube.

"Are you kidding?" she shouted back. She turned her face again to take in some of air from the open hatch. She had expected it to be foul or sickening, but there was a thick aroma of soft burnt wood like incense. It was still too dark to see the full chamber itself, but somewhere in there was the sweating mass of the Brain. She had half-expected to hear it gurgling, but there was little more than the hiss of idling ventilation.

There was another tug on her leg. She grabbed the thin line and held it taut. She heard the first rattle of the corroding cans as the Warrior fed them into the tube, then she pulled steadily to maintain the tension. "We're both mad," she thought. "But I'm the one pulling the explosives toward me."

She rested the pair of _bokken_ in a little groove in the tube beside her. She felt a little ridiculous now. How could she possibly fight anything in that space? Other than poking any assailant with the sticks. But they were part of her discipline now and that was all that was keeping her calm.

The first can arrived between her heels. She looked down to confirm its presence visually. Slivers of light defined the circular ends. She then fed it up past her belly and over her face then straight away thru the open hatch into the chamber beyond. Three more followed.

"How many?" she quizzed, taking a breath. The cord went taut again and another four cans arrived in the dark for disposal into the target location.

"Warrior?" she called. No reply, then a final tug on the cord. She tried to recall if there had been ten or twelve cans in the pack. But two last cans duly arrived. She let them bump against her skin as she hastily disposed of them. One then two. Her hand held the last can before it dropped. It felt a little light.

"Where's the timer?" she thought.

"Where's the timer?!" she shouted.

Then the darkness lit up.


	5. Chapter 5

"Professor!"

"I'm pleased to see you too, Dorothy." The Doctor smiled, looming over her. She was on a hospital bed, dressed as before but resting. "Can you move yet?" he said.

"I feel stiff," she said. Her limbs were heavy and slow like a dream. "Have I been sedated?"

She tried to analyze the room around her. Very blue, very English, very Earth. But fluctuating like a limp tide at the edge of a beach.

"No," said the Doctor, looking around. "Well maybe. This room is just a fake. Are you seeing a hospital? Late Penumbra Gallifrey I think. Designed to reassure you."

The bubble cleared. It seemed so obvious as the background faded. They were inside the chamber housing the Brain. It was awful, dark and smelling of pungent smoke.

"How did I get thru the hole?" she asked. "It was way too small." She was just lying on the ground in the darkness. She rubbed her arms and legs, flexing them carefully. Pins and needles.

"You were folded up and squeezed thru," said the Doctor quietly. "Same as me. The plastic bubbles act as a temporary seal."

"I do feel a little toasted," she began. She looked at the ashes of the _bokken_ still hanging from her thigh. "How come my weaponry was left outside of the envelope?"

"The system automatically disarms you. Sorry. You know the _shui_ was all wrong anyway?"

"So I've heard."

They were stood behind the corroded remains of a control station. Just over the edge of the dials and controls they could look into the main space of the chamber. The Brain was still intact in the darkness, highlighted at a thousand tiny spots by the sparkle of electrical ire. A blurry outline of blue and grey reminded Ace of something.

"The bubble plastic?" she exclaimed. "The Brain was also protected from the blast."

"Ssh," hissed the Doctor. He had changed from relieved to wary. "They might have all sorts of sensors."

"Who is 'they'?" she whispered.

He pointed archly to the edge of the control panel. She looked around carefully. The blue-grey bubble was even more solid now. From the randomly reflected light she could see shapes buzzing around the base.

She would have blurted out the word "Daleks!" but the Doctor had already anticipated this and had a firm hand over her mouth. He nodded blankly then lifted a finger to his lips to suggest no further talk.

The Daleks were arranged in the distance in a floating diamond formation, three forming a fixed 'v' shape behind an obvious lead. In the dark it was hard to tell, but they all seemed to be of the same color, shiny but pitch black. She tried to recall the various and varying Dalek hierarchies. They were all evil but four black daleks was new to her.

"You shall not pass!"

Ace and the Doctor both jerked their heads up to look at the slight figure on the gantry way above everything.

"Who is that?" asked the Doctor. He seemed very irritated.

Ace felt a little swell within her that she knew even the tiniest bit more than the Professor.

"That's the man who persuaded me to bring the explosives. One of your lot. Crazy, sad, but friendly."

"But who is he?" hissed the Doctor. "What's his name?"

"He didn't say," Ace whispered. "Bit of a fighter though. Ex-military type?"

"He'll need to be," said the Doctor. The bubble was complete. The sparkling shadows of the Brain began to float loose of the floor and rotate toward the lead Dalek.

"There are many things about the Daleks that have been terrible, Ace. And will be in the future." He looked over the broken metal rim again. "This is another of those terrible things. But it's today's terrible thing."

She looked over the ledge trying to divine any meaning behind the red glow of the eyestalks.

"This..." he began. "...is the Hunt."

She glimpsed their focus again, their concentration. She let herself slide quietly back as the three rear Daleks began to sweep round to cover their escape. The eerie glow of their blacklight and the crackle of personal sensors buzzed around them.

"They're hunters?" she thought.

"No!" came the shout.

The Warrior was up on one of the higher gantries. A square device was propped on his right shoulder. A personal rocket launcher.

"Not this time!" he shouted. The rockets scorched out of the mounting in a block of four plunging squarely into the ascending bubble. The Warrior fell backwards, stumbled for a second then tumbled from the gantry to the fireball below. The scattered Daleks regained their diamond positions and converged on the fallen figure.

" _Destroy_ ," they intoned. " _Destroy_." The diamond formation rose up to the ceiling and paused. Ace could see the tiniest flicker of light and shadow on the young but old face. Then the Daleks opened fire. They were not careful nor were they surgical, she knew the Daleks rarely were, but their lack of control was unsettling. The ruby lasers burned and howled.

Now it was too loud and too hot for them to be discovered. "We have to help," shouted Ace.

"He's dead already," growled the Doctor. His grip held her upper arm without compromise. "And we've lost the Brain."

She could have broken free of him, despite his tricks. But it was already too late. The firefight was over. The cackling glee of the Hunt confirmed their victory.

"Time to return to the Tardis. For now." The Doctor dragged her to the back wall near to the pipe entrance blasted by her train of explosives. A larger hexagonal hatch was obscured by dirt and waste. "Combined Safe Room and Escape Pod. Ideal for prison staff handling the riskier inmates."

His self-satisfaction was not pleasing to Ace. There were too many unanswered questions. "We'll come back, Professor," she said as he slammed the pod door shut. "This can't be over…"

 **The End (For Now)**  
Ace and Warrior Return in 'My Dalek Spine'


End file.
